The transport of containers occurs sometimes by highway vehicles on which the containers must be fastened in a simple and secure way. The vehicles therefore have suitable locking devices that work together with the corner fittings of the containers.
Commonly used are so-called twist-locks which have a locking pin and a mushroom-shaped head. This locking pin is introduced into the corner fitting, twisted, and clamped in this locking position. Such a locking device is known, for example, from DE 20 2009 016 268 U1. Such devices have the drawback that they need to be operated by hand.
DE 20 2010 005 717 U1 discloses a locking device which enables an automatic locking during loading with blocking of the locked position and a semiautomatic unloading in that a blocking means is released before the unloading process. The device has one or in particular two locking levers that can swivel in a scissors arrangement in opposite directions about a common axis that wanders in the vertical direction. Beneath the axis, the lower legs of the locking levers are bent relative to the upper leg, and a bent lever is pivoted by a hinge on the lower legs. The bent levers are able to swivel on a fixed point in the housing of the locking device. Moreover, a blocking means in the form of a sliding bar is arranged in the housing of the locking device, which is loaded by springs in the direction of its locking position. By pressing down on a release when the container is put in place, the locking of the bar is released, so that it shoots out due to the tensioned compression springs and hinders the common axis of the scissors hinge in its vertical movement and thus blocks it.
This device has the drawback that the bent lever and scissors mechanism is cumbersome and thus costly to manufacture and prone to malfunction. Furthermore, the locking levers are only blocked in the locking position, but not clamped, so that the corner fittings can shake during operation and a firm seating of the container cannot be assured.
In order to solve this problem for such hooklike locking devices, it has already been proposed to provide only a single locking hook and to configure this hook as a lever of the first kind, which can swivel about a stationary pivot axis in the housing. By means of a spindle, which engages with the lower end of the locking hook, the locking hook can be placed in its locking position by means of tools and by hand and, once engaging with the corner fitting, it can also be pressed down against the corner fitting. This device has the drawback that the device does not fall automatically into its locking position and the turning of the spindle to the locking, clamping and unlocking of the hook is time consuming.
The problem of the invention is to provide a container locking device that has an easy construction, locks automatically, and ensures a firm seating of the container.